The villages of Stoke St. Mary, Thurlbear and Orchard Portman.

FYRSE COTTAGE, STOKE ST. MARY

Photograph by David Fothergill 2001
Photograph by Alan Prime 2001

Link to TDBC Listed Dwellings of Stoke St Mary.

HISTORY of FYRSE COTTAGE, STOKE ST MARY
Grade : II List Entry Date : 25 February 1955. Cottage. C16, dated 1658, refenestrated early C20. Rendered over rubble, thatched roof, double Roman tiles to single storey garage adjoining, brick stacks gable ends and to left of cross passage. L-plan. 3-cell and cross passage, addition at rear, garage right. One and a half storeys, 2:2 bays, C20 leaded metal windows first floor, 3-light mullioned and transomed windows with gabled tops in outer bays, 3-light casements beside, all rising from below eaves, ground floor left large 2-light Ham stone mullioned windows, chamfered with runout stops, 3-light casement left of entrance, another Ham stone mullioned 3-light casement beyond, double garage doors, chamfered square headed doorway, studded plank door with long hinges, possibly C17, above date stone inscribed Thomas Fyrse 1658. Interior: cross passage wall right rebuilt timber partition, chamfered beam with scroll stops to former kitchen, chamfered lintel to fireplace said to have evidence of former bacon curing chamfer, left cross passage wall refaced in stone, timber framed corridor wall at rear with brick infill, 3-light octagonal mullioned window on rear wall, lateral beams to hall and west end room. Upper storey said to contain evidence of jointed cruck roof. (VAG Report, unpublished SRO, February 1974 and January 1975).
Source: TDBC Online Listed Buildings - Stoke St. Mary.

Fyrse Cottage, a fine thatched house, stands at the heart of the village and is probably Stoke St. Mary's oldest domestic building: it rose in the sixteenth century and was evidently enlarged in 1658 by Thomas Furse, a lime-burner. He left his name carved over his door and was once heard to speak disloyal words of Oliver Cromwell.
Source: Tom Mayberry 1987.

Preparing for the hunt.
A postcard circa 1920
provided by Mrs Dorothy Hardwell
June 2001.